Past Weekly Inspirational Quotes, Page 2

(The current one is on our Home Page)

#7 published 4-06-03

A PROPHETIC FORECAST - part 3, adapted by
Brother Dave

Jesus' concept and ideal of a spiritual brotherhood largely failed, but upon the foundation of the Master's Personal Life and Teachings, supplemented by the Greek and Persian concepts of eternal life and augmented by Philo's doctrine of the temporal contrasted with the Spiritual, Paul went forth to build up one of the most progressive human societies which has ever existed on earth.

The concept of Jesus is still alive in the advanced religions of the world. Paul's Christian church is the socialized and humanized shadow of what Jesus intended the Kingdom of Heaven to be--and what it most certainly will yet become. Paul and his successors partly transferred the issues of eternal life from the Individual to the church. Christ thus became the Head of the church rather than the Elder Brother of each Individual Believer in the Father's Family of the Kingdom. Paul and his contemporaries applied all of Jesus' spiritual implications regarding Himself and the Individual Believer to the CHURCH as a GROUP of believers; and in doing this, they struck a deathblow to Jesus' concept of the Divine Kingdom in the heart of the Individual Believer.

And so, for centuries, the Christian church has labored under great embarrassment because it dared to lay claim to those mysterious powers and privileges of the Kingdom, powers and privileges which can be exercised and experienced only between Jesus and His Spiritual Believer Brothers. And thus it becomes apparent that membership in the church does not necessarily mean Fellowship in the Kingdom; one is spiritual, the other mainly social.

Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming "the Kingdom of God is at hand"--

#8 published 4-12-2003

A PROPHETIC FORECAST - part 4 of 4,
adapted by Brother Dave

Sooner or later another and greater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming "the Kingdom of God is at hand"--meaning a return to the high spiritual concept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the Kingdom is the will of His Heavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of the believer--and doing all this without in any way referring either to the visible church on earth or to the anticipated Second Coming of Christ. There must come a revival of the actual teachings of Jesus, such a restatement as will undo the work of His early followers who went about to create a sociophilosophical system of belief regarding the fact of Jesus Christ's sojourn on earth. In a short time the teaching of this story about Jesus nearly supplanted the preaching of Jesus' Gospel of the Kingdom. In this way a historical religion displaced that teaching in which Jesus had blended man's highest moral ideas and spiritual ideals with man's most sublime hope for the future--eternal life. And that was the Gospel of the Kingdom.

It is just because the Gospel of Jesus was so many-sided that within a few centuries students of the records of His teachings became divided up into so many cults and sects. This pitiful subdivision of Christian believers results from failure to discern in the Master's manifold teachings the Divine Oneness of His matchless life. But someday the true believers in Jesus will not be thus spiritually divided in their attitude before unbelievers. Always we may have diversity of intellectual comprehension and interpretation, even varying degrees of socialization, but lack of spiritual brotherhood is both inexcusable and reprehensible. (Jesus is fully here in Spirit, calling us now into spiritual UNITY, not merely stale, enslaving "human authoritative" creedal intellectual UNIFORMITY ! Big difference !)

Mistake not! there is in the teachings of Jesus an eternal nature which will not permit them forever to remain unfruitful in the hearts of thinking men. The Kingdom as Jesus conceived it has (so far) to a large extent failed on earth; for the time being, an outward church has taken its place; but you should comprehend that this church is only the larval stage of the thwarted Spiritual Kingdom, which will carry it through this material age and over into a more spiritual dispensation where the Master's teachings may enjoy a fuller opportunity for development. Thus does the so-called Christian church become the cocoon in which the Kingdom of Jesus' concept now slumbers. The Kingdom of the Divine Brotherhood is STILL ALIVE and will eventually and CERTAINLY come forth from this long submergence, just as surely as the butterfly eventually emerges as the beautiful unfolding of its less attractive creature of metamorphic development. Brother Dave has noted that the caterpillar (worm) enters the cocoon; the butterfly leaves (emerges, and is much transformed; fully beyond all Human scientific comprehensions) ...

#9 published 4-19-2003

Our Father's Name, adapted by Brother Dave

Our Sovereign Savior Jesus Christ has manifested the Father's name to the world. And that is truly what He did by the Revelation of God through His Perfected Life in the flesh. The Father in Heaven had sought to reveal HimSelf to Moses, but He could proceed no further than to cause it to be said, "I AM." And when pressed for further revelation of HimSelf, it was only disclosed, "I AM that I AM." But when JESUS had finished His earth life, this name of the Father had been so revealed that the Master, who was and IS the Father incarnate, could truly say:

I AM the Bread of Life.

I AM the Living Water.

I AM the Light of the world.

I AM the Desire of all ages.

I AM the Open Door to eternal salvation.

I AM the Reality of endless life.

I AM the Good Shepherd.

I AM the Pathway of infinite perfection.

I AM the Resurrection and the Life.

I AM the Secret of eternal survival.

I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

I AM the Infinite Father of my finite children.

I AM the True Vine; you are the branches.

I AM the Hope of all who know the Living Truth.

I AM the Living Bridge from one world to another.

I AM the Living Link between time and eternity.

Thus did JESUS enlarge the Living Revelation of the name of GOD to all generations. As Divine Love reveals the nature of God, Eternal Truth discloses His name in ever-enlarging proportions.

Brother Dave has noted also in his writings:

I AM the Universal Father

I AM the Eternal Son

I AM the Paradise Father-Son Union

I AM your Paradise Prince of Peace Now

I AM your Eternal Father and Elder Brother;
Follow Me and serve all Persons with fatherly and brotherly love; as they too are my beloved sons.

Be now the son of God, in Jesus, that you are !

#10 published 4-26-2003

Social Aspects of Religion, part 1 of 2

While religion is exclusively a personal spiritual experience--knowing God as a Father--the corollary of this experience--knowing man as a brother-- entails the adjustment of the self to other selves, and that involves the social or group aspect of religious life. Religion is first an inner or personal adjustment, and then it becomes a matter of social service or group adjustment. The fact of man's gregariousness perforce determines that religious groups will come into existence. What happens to these religious groups depends very much on intelligent leadership. In primitive society the religious group is not always very different from economic or political groups. Religion has always been a conservator of morals and a stabilizer of society. And this is still true, notwithstanding the contrary teaching of many modern socialists and humanists.

Always keep in mind: True religion is to know God as your
Father and man as your brother. Religion is not a slavish
belief in threats of punishment or magical promises of future mystical rewards.

The religion of Jesus is the most dynamic influence ever to
activate the human race. Jesus shattered tradition, destroyed dogma,
and called mankind to the achievement of its highest ideals in time
and eternity--to be perfect, even as the Father in heaven is perfect.

Religion has little chance to function until the religious group becomes separated from all other groups--the social association of the spiritual membership of the kingdom of heaven.

The doctrine of the total depravity of man destroyed much of the
potential of religion for effecting social repercussions of an uplifting nature and of inspirational value. Jesus sought to restore man's dignity when he declared that all men are the children of God.

Any religious belief which is effective in spiritualizing the
believer is certain to have powerful repercussions in the social life of such a religionist. Religious experience unfailingly yields the "fruits of the spirit" in the daily life of the spirit-led mortal.

Just as certainly as men share their religious beliefs, they create a religious group of some sort which eventually creates common goals. Someday religionists will get together and actually effect co-operation on the basis of unity of ideals and purposes rather than attempting to do so on the basis of psychological opinions and theological beliefs. GOALS rather than creeds should unify religionists. Since true religion is a matter of personal spiritual experience, it is inevitable that each individual religionist must have his own and personal interpretation of the realization of that spiritual experience. Let the term "faith" stand for the individual's relation to God rather than for the creedal formulation of what some group of mortals have been able to agree upon as a common religious attitude. "Have you faith? Then have it to yourself." (Rom 14:22)

#11 published 5-03-2003

Social Aspects of Religion, part 2 of 2

That faith is concerned only with the grasp of ideal values is shown by the New Testament definition which declares that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. (Heb 11:1)

Primitive man made little effort to put his religious convictions into words. His religion was danced out rather than thought out. Modern men have thought out many creeds and created many tests of religious faith. Future religionists must live out their religion, dedicate themselves to the wholehearted service of the brotherhood of man. It is high time that man had a religious experience so personal and so sublime that it could be realized and expressed only by "feelings that lie too deep for words."

Jesus did not require of his followers that they should periodically assemble and recite a form of words indicative of their common beliefs. He only ordained that they should gather together to actually do something--partake of the communal supper of the remembrance of his bestowal life here with us.

What a mistake for Christians to make when, in presenting Christ as the supreme ideal of spiritual leadership, they dare to require God-conscious men and women to reject the historic leadership of the God-knowing men who have contributed to their particular national or racial illumination during past ages.

INSTITUTIONAL RELIGION

Sectarianism is a disease of institutional religion, and dogmatism is an enslavement of the spiritual nature. It is far better to have a religion without a church than a church without religion. The religious turmoil of the twentieth century does not, in and of itself, betoken spiritual decadence. Confusion goes before growth as well as before destruction.

There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship. And all live religions encourage human friendship, conserve morality, promote neighborhood welfare, and facilitate the spread of the essential gospel of their respective messages of eternal salvation.

But as religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; accumulation of vested interests with increase of secularization; tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of God to the service of the church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; creation of the aristocratic "chosen-people" attitude; fostering of false and exaggerated ideas of sacredness; the routinizing of religion and the petrification of worship; tendency to venerate the past while ignoring present demands; failure to make up-to-date interpretations of religion; entanglement with functions of secular institutions; it creates the evil discrimination of religious castes; it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation.

Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them for heightened service as kingdom builders.

#12 published 5-10-2003

CHARACTERISTICSOF TRUERELIGIOUS FAITH

Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and testing social situations. Genuine spiritual faith (true moral consciousness) is revealed in that it:

5. Maintains a mysterious poise and composure of personality in the face of maltreatment and the rankest injustice.

6. Maintains a divine trust in ultimate victory in spite of the cruelties of seemingly blind fate and the apparent utter indifference of natural forces to human welfare.

7. Persists in the unswerving belief in God despite all contrary demonstrations of logic and successfully withstands all other intellectual sophistries.

8. Continues to exhibit undaunted faith in the soul's survival regardless of the deceptive teachings of false science and the persuasive delusions of unsound philosophy.

9. Lives and triumphs irrespective of the crushing overload of the complex and partial civilizations of modern times.

10. Contributes to the continued survival of altruism in spite of human selfishness, social antagonisms, industrial greeds, and political maladjustments.

11. Steadfastly adheres to a sublime belief in universe unity and divine guidance regardless of the perplexing presence of evil and sin.

12. Goes right on worshiping God in spite of anything and everything. Dares to declare, "Even though he slay me, yet will I serve him."

We know, then, by three phenomena, that man has a divine spirit of God, or spirits of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as One, dwelling within him: first, by personal experience--religious faith; second, by revelation--personal and racial; and third, by the amazing exhibition of such extraordinary and unnatural reactions to his material environment as are illustrated by the foregoing recital of twelve spiritlike performances in the presence of the actual and trying situations of real human existence. And there are still others.

And it is just such a vital and vigorous performance of faith in the domain of religion that entitles mortal man to affirm the personal possession and spiritual reality of that crowning endowment of human nature, religious experience.

#13 published May 17, 2003

ON KNOWING
OUR FATHER GOD

Those who would invent a religion without God are like those who would gather fruit without trees, have children without parents. You cannot have effects without causes; only the I AM is causeless. The fact of religious experience implies God, and such a God of personal experience must be a personal Deity. You cannot pray to a chemical formula, supplicate a mathematical equation, worship a hypothesis, confide in a postulate, commune with a process, serve an abstraction, or hold loving fellowship with a law.

True, many apparently religious traits can grow out of nonreligious roots. Man can, intellectually, deny God and yet be morally good, loyal, filial, honest, and even idealistic. Man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his basic spiritual nature and thus apparently prove his contentions in behalf of a godless religion, but such an experience is devoid of survival values, God-knowingness and God-ascension. In such a mortal experience only social fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual. The graft determines the nature of the fruit, notwithstanding that the living sustenance is drawn from the roots of original divine endowment of both mind and spirit.

The intellectual earmark of religion is certainty; the philosophical characteristic is consistency; the social fruits are love and service.

The God-knowing individual is not one who is blind to the difficulties or unmindful of the obstacles which stand in the way of finding God in the maze of superstition, tradition, and materialistic tendencies of modern times. He has encountered all these deterrents and triumphed over them, surmounted them by living faith, and attained the highlands of spiritual experience in spite of them. But it is true that many who are inwardly sure about God fear to assert such feelings of certainty because of the multiplicity and cleverness of those who assemble objections and magnify difficulties about believing in God. It requires no great depth of intellect to pick flaws, ask questions, or raise objections. But it does require brilliance of mind to answer these questions and solve these difficulties; faith certainty is the greatest technique for dealing with all such superficial contentions.

If science, philosophy, or sociology dares to become dogmatic in contending with the prophets of true religion, then should God-knowing men reply to such unwarranted dogmatism with that more farseeing dogmatism of the certainty of personal spiritual experience, "I know what I have experienced because I am a son of I AM." If the personal experience of a faither is to be challenged by dogma, then this faith-born son of the experiencible Father may reply with that unchallengeable dogma, the statement of his actual sonship with the Universal Father.

Only an unqualified reality, an absolute, could dare consistently to be dogmatic. Those who assume to be dogmatic must, if consistent, sooner or later be driven into the arms of the Absolute of energy, the Universal of truth, and the Infinite of love.

If the nonreligious approaches to cosmic reality presume to challenge the certainty of faith on the grounds of its unproved status, then the spirit experiencer can likewise resort to the dogmatic challenge of the facts of science and the beliefs of philosophy on the grounds that they are likewise unproved; they are likewise experiences in the consciousness of the scientist or the philosopher.

Of God, the most inescapable of all presences, the most real of all facts, the most living of all truths, the most loving of all friends, and the most divine of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe experiences.